….Was a ROUSING SUCCESS!!!
And my feet are talking to me. But, the kids two generations down washed all the dishes for me, and most of the dishes have been put away. My stepson has put tables back where they belong, and will help me tomorrow, bringing up the Christmas trees.
There were thirty-nine people here for the day. They began arriving at noon. Dinner was scheduled for 3:00, and we actually got there a little late, but the appetizers were wonderful and no one complained.
This year, in addition to the traditional green beans deluxe, and broccoli casserole, we added a corn dish, sauteed Brussels sprouts and mashed sweet potatoes. No one goes hungry at our house! *G* My sister made the traditional pumpkin pies, one of my nieces made creme brulee, and another brought chocolate dipped strawberries and a pear-hazelnut cake.
As we gathered before the meal, my youngest sister read to us Abraham Lincoln’s proclamation which started Thanksgiving Day. It’s good to know our history, and why we celebrate this day.
Should you be in our neck of the woods next Thanksgiving, drop in. We have more than enough to share.
I’m STILL Excited!
Thanksgiving is just five days away now. I’ve been taking my time cleaning the house. Almost all of the interior windows have been washed, all the exterior windows, the chandelier and one other high light have been cleaned. The grounds have been raked and cleaned, and are ready for me to mulch and lay down straw.
I’ve cleaned out all but two closets, and there is still hope that one of them might get done. My sewing room has been reorganized, and I plan to box up all the tools so that we can use the sewing table to seat eight of our guests.
I spent several hours replacing the shelf liners in the lower kitchen cabinets, and the foil liners in the ovens. I’ve washed all the dish towels, and plan to box up the things on the mud room counter, to make room for two roasters.
I’ve ironed napkins and quilting fabric and one shirt. I may iron two more table cloths, and four napkins, but I’m close to being able to put the ironing board away.
I still need to go through boxes of things from Mother that I want to share with my family on Thursday. That will allow me to wash and iron the table cloth in the dining room.
I’m ready to fine tune my shopping list for Tuesday, when I pick up the turkey. At that point, we will do some early meal preparation, and I will begin focusing on the tables, and the table decorations.
We have it under control, and I expect to have a wonderful holiday. I wish you could all be here, so that we could share the holiday!
Sarah’s Italian Sauce
For the longest time I have wanted to try Dear Husband’s mother’s recipe for red sauce, but for some reason, it’s just never happened. I announced my intent last January, thinking we could cook together before boating season arrived, but we just couldn’t seem to find a weekend where we could play in the kitchen. I wanted DH’s guidance and memories as we put together this sauce.
Dear Husband’s mother was Sicilian. When she wanted a sauce for her pasta, she made it from scratch. No Prego or Ragu for her! When DH and I married, I became the guardian of the Italian Sauce recipe.
A few months ago I bought some of the ingredients, and thought I’d give it a go. Then, Mother passed away and thoughts of the red sauce were put aside for a bit. FINALLY, last Monday, I decided that I would just do it last week, and got out my crock pot.
I started out the morning by browning a package of pork neck bones and Italian sausages. I put the browned meat and bones into a large crock pot, added all the other ingredients and let it simmer all day long. I’m sure Sarah cooked hers on the stove, but you have to be careful to diffuse the heat, or avoid stirring the burnt crust on the bottom of the pan into the sauce.
I doubled the recipe with the intent of using half of it that night, and freezing half of it. I was very pleasantly surprised by the taste of this very meaty sauce. We used it over rigatoni, and it made a very simple but satisfying supper. This sauce could easily be turned into an Italian ragu with the addition of a soffritto (a partially-fried mixture of chopped onions, celery, and carrots).
Here’s Sarah’s recipe:
2 small cans tomato sauce
2 small cans tomato paste
1 or 2 lbs. neck bones (pork only)
1 6 quart sauce pan with a cover or a screen
2 Tbsp. olive oil or corn oil
1 Tbsp. good Greek oregano
1 or 2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp sugar (can omit)
Options: 5-6 mushrooms, sliced, 1/4 of a green bell pepper, sliced, Chicken, Italian sausage or hamburger can be added to the pork bones, but you will need a larger pot.
In your large sauce pan, brown neck bones, and other meats if using, in oil. Season with salt and pepper. When the meat(s) have been browned, add the tomato sauce and tomato paste. Rinse the cans and add the rinse liquid to the pot. The pot must be 3/4 FULL of liquid. If there is not enough liquid from rinsing the cans, add more water.
Stir with a wooden spoon until the liquid begins to boil. While stirring, add all the spices/seasonings and any mushrooms or green peppers you want.
Lower the heat so that the sauce simmers, and simmer for four hours, stirring occasionally. Remember not to stir up the crust from the bottom of the pot, or the sauce will taste burnt. Cover the pan with a splatter screen to allow steam to escape but prevent splatters.
Remove the neck bones from the sauce and use the sauce as needed.
I doubled the recipe, and cooked it in a crock pot on low through out the day. I omitted the sugar to begin with, but Dear Husband taste tested it and said it needed the sugar, and I agreed. DH feels that it could use a little more salt.
Cook’s Illustrated did a study of beef stew and determined the best way to make it taste really beefy was to add mushrooms. You could add mushrooms to this sauce, but I think the neck bones make it meaty enough. I added two links of Italian sausage, and next time plan to add the entire package of five links.
When it was time to discard the bones, we discovered that the tiniest of neck bones can be very hard to find. Spend time in your search, to be sure you get them all.
Sarah advised removing the Italian sausage from the cooked sauce, but we left it in. DH calls this sauce “gravy,” and tested it by putting a heel of Italian bread into it.
Give this a try. Don’t wait twenty years to do it, as I did.
An Early Christmas
Do you recall that I have been grinching around about people who have begun their Christmas shopping before we have even gotten to Thanksgiving? Hmmmm…perhaps that was over at Facebook that I said that. At any rate, every year it becomes more irritating to me to hear Christmas carols in October, and discover that one of my sisters started her Christmas shopping last year! Bah HUMBUG, I say!
But…..I received a package today. And when I opened that package, I discovered that there was a full size finished quilt inside! My first Christmas gift, and it’s not even Thanksgiving yet. Of course there’s a story to this.
A decade ago I was a dedicated chatter. I was addicted to the computer and to chat rooms. If I couldn’t log in and talk to someone, I went into withdrawal. Then, I realized that I needed to get a life, and I cut back severely on the chatting. Ultimately, I ended with a handful of people with whom share occasional e-mails, and there was one young man I “spoke” to frequently via Yahoo Messenger. As time went on, and my mother came to need me more, my time at the computer dwindled, but not before I discovered that this young man’s mother QUILTED!
We sent items back and forth across the “pond,” and we shared letters. She is certain that if she sits at a computer it will break, so we occasionally do snail-mail. We’ve been trying to get her to e-mail, or to even communicate through Skype, without a lot of luck, and our connection was dropped this summer as my mother’s health began to fail, and she passed away.
My friend was selling quilts to raise cash for her daughter to build a poly house, so they could extend the growing season at their very northern home. I admired one of the patterns she had made, and told her that I’d be happy to buy just the top, to help raise funds. I thought ultimately it would be less expensive to ship it, and I could get it quilted here. So, I was absolutely floored to find the entire quilt, right down to the label, in the box!
This gift came all the way from Scotland! My friend had to be planning this during the summer to get the quilt completed and mailed off in time to beat the holiday mailing rush, and she came through like a champ! The quilt is a wonderful collection of fabrics with a very scrappy look, and a white background. When I have the chance to hang it, I’ll take a picture to share with you.
So….I guess I must say, “Let the celebrating begin!” Nooooelllll, Nooooellllllll…..
Progress
It doesn’t look like it, but I’m making progress. As usual, my fall cleaning coincides with Thanksgiving. If I was sensible, I’d get this done sooner, but this year there were other things to see to. Actually, I’m a procrastinator, especially when it’s something that I don’t like to do. Do you know ANYONE who likes to do fall cleaning?? (Probably my niece does. There’s no one who cleans as well as she does!)
I started by sorting out the closets in the two guest rooms, and then began on MY closet. It took me several days, but I culled out all the clothes that I needed to give away, and pulled the summer clothes out of the closet. Then, I went through all my winter clothing and tried things on to be sure they still fit. I’ve asked Dear Husband to go through the spare jeans to decide which to keep and which to throw out, and that closet will be DONE!! YEA! Oh, and I also cleaned and reorganized the things on the shelves,and vacuumed up some of the dust! *G*
So, I have just one closet, the one in the office, to clean out. If I run out of time, I’ll just CLOSE THE DOOR! Sounds like a plan, doesn’t it???
I have a chart of what needs to be done, parceled out over the next ten days. It’s the only way I can keep track of how much time I have left to accomplish everything. The nice thing about Excel is that I can move thing around when I find I’ve put too much on one day, or I have more time than I thought I would.
Share a Square
As you can see, there is something new posted to the right. It’s a link to Shelly Tucker’s Share a Square FAQ page. Go ahead, click on it……I’ll wait right here for you…..
Back?? If you crochet, or know someone who crochets, would you please ask them to donate a few six-inch crocheted squares to this great cause? Even someone who is as rusty at crocheting as I am can crank out a square while watching one hour of TV at night. If you watch a lot of TV, you could be helping a good cause at the same time.
Your square doesn’t have to be as elegant as the one on the link. It can be a simple granny square, but be sure to read through the information to see what type of yarn to use (no wool!). I was shopping the other day and hit a phenomenal sale on yarn and picked up four skeins for about six dollars. I’m not sure how many squares that will make, but I plan to use it all up.
Be a sport. Send Shelly some squares, SOON!!
TJ and ME
Actually, TJ and US. Tomorrow, Saturday, November 6th, Dear Husband and I are going to listen to Thomas Jefferson speak at College of Du Page, in Glen Ellyn, Illinois.
Yeah, I know he’s been dead for a century and a half. Clay Jenkinson speaks to an audience from Jefferson’s point of view. He’s done these visits for almost ten years through WGN Radio and it’s sponsors, and I think this will be the last of his visits. I just couldn’t let the opportunity pass. I’ve wanted to attend each of these sessions and just couldn’t call in at the right time to get tickets, so you can imagine how excited I am that we will get to attend tomorrow’s session.
A friend from exercise told me that she and her daughter had attended one of his previous visits, and she was sure we would enjoy it. I’ll post more tomorrow, but you can be sure we will have had a great time!
Thanksgiving
Yeah….I invited them all to have Thanksgiving here. I love it….it’s a crazy day, and takes a lot of time to organize, but I’m a sucker for a traditional Thanksgiving.
We expect to have 41…..FORTY-ONE people to sit down to dinner here. I’ve figured out how to do it without renting tables, and without renting chairs! Family will bring chairs, I have chairs, and a friend is going to loan seven chairs to me. Another friend has offered table cloths. I think I have it all covered. We have plenty of glasses, china, silverware and napkins. I’ve written up a proposed menu. It’s pot luck, and family can either bring part of the written menu, or contribute something new. Once the menu is complete, I’ll print it on the blog. It’s just astonishing the food that we will share.
Unfortunately, not all of my family will be able to attend. My sister-in-law is feeling poorly, and one of my nieces and two of her brothers live too far away to make it for the day. The twins will be traveling to their sweethearts, and one small branch of the family has not responded. (Make a note to buy Thanksgiving cards for those who can’t attend……)
I’m SO EXCITED!!! (Can you hear the Pointer Sisters singing in the background?). If I wasn’t typing, I’d be boogie-ing across the room, headed to my list of things to do, getting ready for the big day. I love this time of year, and I’m really looking forward to the family gathering. How fortunate we are to have a place to offer them, and how fortunate we are that most of them will be able to join us. *S*
My Closet
I think it’s been four years since I last gave my bedroom closet a thorough cleaning. I’ve been trying to ignore the situation, or doing little patches on a big job to tide it over until I could do it the right way. It’s been on my mind to do this for some time, and it seemed to be more and more pressing as we moved into November. I felt that I needed to start my Fall cleaning with this project, although it’s the least important of the things that need to be done before Thanksgiving.
I started on the closet this past Tuesday, and spent three or four hours a day for the next three days, working on just MY stuff! I started with the shelves. I emptied all but the shelves that hold my socks and accessories. I moved all the prescription drugs, ALL the moisturizers and sun blocks, the tissues, and cleaning supplies, shoes, wash cloths, purses, jewelry boxes, cosmetic bags and electronics. I swabbed down the shelves and wiped a ton of dust off everything. I reorganized so that everything was put back efficiently, and used the one extra shelf that gained me to store a ba-zilion candles that I have accumulated over the years. Now that I know where they are, I may use them better.
Once everything was put back on the shelving, I started with clothing that is a size or two too small. I know….if you haven’t worn it in the past six months, it should be thrown out. I cleared out about a third of the closet for GoodWill, and another third went into storage for the svelte me that must be about ready to return. I washed everything washable that is going to Goodwill, folded it and bagged it up. I’m ready to give it away.
I tried to dust the top shelf, but I need to have someone either come in with a ladder or a taller chair, and both vacuum and wipe things down. I gave it a shot, but there’s still dust up there, I know.
I re-organized the tops that I wear so that shirts are located by color and sleeve length. I did the same for Dear Husband, but you know that only lasted a day or so. We still need to have him look through jeans and slacks and pull out those that don’t fit.
The last thing I worked on was the stuff stored on the bottom of the closet. I threw out some empty shoe boxes and stored the rest. I have tote bags, and an old piece of luggage that holds travel organizers and purses. I need to find room for these things without returning the closet to its previous clutter. Wish me luck!
It’s great to be able to see the floor, and see what’s in the closet. Unfortunately, now I need to bring up my winter clothes! I plan to give away a lot of clothes that are in storage, and add just those winter things that I can wear. Remind me to never again buy a polyester sweater!
November 2010
I must have written twenty blog entries in my head. I’ve marveled at the colors of the trees, and the beauty of the leaf-less trees backed by scudding black clouds. I’ve noticed that the egrets and herons left us about the middle of October. I’ve moaned about the endless cleaning we do, and the yardwork that needed to be done.
I’ve written up stories about all the birthdays celebrated in October, including Dear Husband, and mine, and ~T~ who hosts my blog. She celebrated on October 31st, and I should have reached out to help her celebrate.
I’ve pondered why some days exercise seems like a breeze and other days it feels like someone has tied me to cement blocks.
I wrote, in my mind, about a wonderful trip we made with My-Sister-The-Nurse to visit with my youngest sis, Frankie, of “Just My Opinion.” She fed us so much and so often that I thought I’d split, and every bite of it was incredible. She and I tried a recipe for Salmon Coulibiac that requires either two people, or one person working all day long, to make, that tasted heavenly. I really have to blog about that meal one day.
I should have blogged when MSTN arranged for me to join her at a book signing by Christopher Kimball of Cook’s Illustrated, for his new book, “Fannie’s Last Supper.”
But I didn’t. I know I should make the time to keep in touch with you, but my days have been REALLY FULL! So, I’ll do a few entries and try to get in the swing of things. I hope to stop by and see what you’ve all been doing. I hope you’re well, and as busy as I am.